Comments on: …. Sabean

By: skill acquisition

skill acquisition — Wed, 14 May 2008 20:16:41 +0000

[...] by William Gum: ??. Among current general managers, only Kevin Towers of the San Diego Padreshttp://www.onlybaseballmatters.com/archives/2008/05/01/sabean/Acquisition work force grows 4 percent in 2007 Federal TimesThe federal acquisition work force grew [...]

By: John Peterson

John Peterson — Tue, 06 May 2008 18:52:40 +0000

John,

I know. I was just weighing in. Plus someone was like, “Peterson? Who the hell is that?” and I was just like, “Here I am. What’s up?”

Thanks for the credit.

John

By: John

John — Sat, 03 May 2008 01:20:26 +0000

John,

I’m not sure, but if you are feeling like you need to defend yourself, you must have misread my piece. I was saying that you hit the nail on the head. Gum is the writer who I thought missed the boat on Sabean.

By: +mia

+mia — Fri, 02 May 2008 22:26:03 +0000

All of that would be true except for the fact that Bonds wasn’t, and isn’t at the end of his career. He was one of the premiere hitters last year and by most metrics played a league average left field.

I assume since you did not dispute the actual points I made, that you agree with them

By: John Peterson

John Peterson — Fri, 02 May 2008 19:21:42 +0000

Peterson here. I’m no expert on the Giants (I’m a Mets fan), so I probably mis-characterized and overgeneralized some of Sabean’s tendencies as GM. I am writing a whole series on every GM in baseball, and I hope that each article provokes as much discussion as this one has. I have learned a lot.

I think the most telling incident in Sabean’s career is when he intentionally forfeited the Giants’ 1st round pick by signing Michael Tucker, citing a weak draft and a lack of interest in paying a 1st round draftee. When you flat out admit that you are incompetent at drafting, it’s time to get out of the business. The incident also shows that the Giants are far more interested in making money than fielding a competitive team on a long-term basis. Of course those two goals are not mutually exclusive, but it’s a lot easier to do the former and not the latter.

By: uncle joe mccarthy

uncle joe mccarthy — Fri, 02 May 2008 18:12:03 +0000

here is the valid baseball reason why bonds is no longer with the team….

he cant play left field anymore….his knees are gone

enough with the bonds should still be here talk

i saw the tail end of mays career…it was embarressing

barry should not go through this

the a’s were stupid….they shoulda signed barry

you want a new park….get barry….he will fill the stands

By: uncle joe mccarthy

uncle joe mccarthy — Fri, 02 May 2008 17:44:48 +0000

the vlad not wanting to sign here is untrue

vlad’s relationship with alou was fine, and in fact had he been approached, his mother (whom he trusts implicitly) would have pushed him to sign

they never went after him

By: John

John — Fri, 02 May 2008 17:03:45 +0000

That’s exactly it. Anyone can be induced to sign, even if they initially say they don’t want to. What about Carlos Beltran? He was the exact player we needed. We never even made an effort. And just keep this in mind, the minute they gave Zito the $126 million, and then league average Aaron Rowand $55 million, every word they said about not being able to afford these guys became a lie. It was never the mortgage payments, or they small market media income, or whatever. It was always about their belief systems about how to build a team. “If we gave Guererro $15 million per, we couldn’t afford Michael Tucker, Edgardo Alfonzo, Neifi Perez, Shawon Dunston and Pedro Feliz. We wouldn’t be able to field a team.” Remember when Sabean fed us that lie?

By: John

John — Fri, 02 May 2008 16:56:57 +0000

I was just using their work as a starting point to the conversation.

By: grega

grega — Fri, 02 May 2008 16:26:19 +0000

I am curious though about one aspect of the free agent signing situation in San Francisco. I read comments about how the Giants failed to sign Guererro to a deal but I can’t help but think there was no way in hell he was going to play here.

It seems to me he hated Felipe Alou during his Expo’s days and simply was not going through that again. We balk at the idea that the Giants wouldn’t match the Angels offer of 12 million per year but I think it’s because to play for the Giants it would have taken more then 25 million per year.

He wasn’t going to sign here. When management said they couldn’t afford him its because he said something like “you don’t have enough money to get me to play here.”

Unfortunately they managed to come up with Zito’s outrageous offer to get him to pitch here. His contract screams out “I don’t want to pitch here but if your dumb enough to pay me 126 million then ok”